Customer Reviews

Mindfulness- and Acceptance-Based Behavioral Therapies in Practice (Guides to Individualized Evidence-Based Treatment)

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This is an incredibly accessible, practical, and useful application of an acceptance based approach to behavior therapy. Roemer and Orsillo cull the empircally-supported commonalities across acceptance based behavior therapies and present a comprehensive approach to treatment. Though many of their examples pertain to the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder, their approach to case formulation and treatment is applicable to a wide range of disorders, including posttraumatic stress disorder. Included are multiple exercises, handouts, and worksheets that add to the overall utility of the manual. The clarity and scientific rigor of this book make it a must read for any professional or student interested in state-of-the-art, evidenced based practice for psychiatric disorders.

This extremely well written book combines both a review of the theory behind acceptance-based approaches to anxiety disorders as well very practical information for doing this therapy. It is filled with handouts, anecdotes, and metaphors making it a very useful resource for both those who are and those who are not already familiar with mindfulness- and acceptance-based strategies. I have been using this approach with a number of my clients and can't believe how well it fits their experience. I've already recommended it to a number of colleagues and believe that it should be part of every therapists library.

Mindfulness Acceptance Based Behavioral Therapies in Practice provides an integrated structure for incorporating acceptance and mindfulness for cognitive-behavioral therapy. The book guides the therapist using evidence-based and researched therapies with individualized cases to help clients seeking treatment for maladaptive relationships regarding internal occurrences. An example is a client with a lack of awareness of where his or her judgment is clouded or having problems with fusion. The problem is experiential avoidance followed by behavioral constriction. The second problem the client might have is experiential avoidance, while the third is behavioral constriction. The book does not provide a protocol for the treatment or focus on one type of acceptance-based models. The principle diagnosis used with these guidelines are clients who have generalized anxiety disorder. The mindful approach is taken from Kabat-Zinn's (2005) method from Buddhist practice, using the concept of being present in the moment and also being aware of looking at the internal and the external issues by using acceptance.

Chapter one focuses on the client's avoidance of experiences, thoughts, and emotions. The book uses the term acceptance-based behavioral therapies (ABBTs) to define the therapy used. The central point of ABBT is being unambiguous or unswervingly focusing on the type of the client's connection to the internal and the methods used to facilitate change and augment the client's quality of life. The authors also includes cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), acceptance commitment therapy (ACT), and dialectic behavioral therapy (DBT) as well as other kinds of acceptance methods of treatment. The first chapter also outlines methods for assessing clients.

Chapter two explains the process of developing case conceptualization when treating clients in the assessment of applicable domains. The client's symptoms are assessed by describing the difficulties that are hampering the client either physically or emotionally. The authors supply the therapist with an anxiety awareness sheet for rating the client's awareness on a scale of 0 to 100 at four different times during the day ( permission is granted to photocopy if the therapist desires to use it in practice). An emotional monitoring sheet is also included as well as an assessment of coping strategies sheet. Both of these forms are used for assessments at different times of the day involving situations, emotions, thoughts, physical sensations as well as responses and outcome (pp. 51-53). The chapter also provides connections of blatant behavior difficulties in how the client uses avoidance.

Chapter three continues with the development of case formulation and linking it to the treatment plan.

Chapter four provides an overview of the methods used for treatment. These set the stage for helping the therapist organize the practice by giving the mode of therapy to the number and length of therapy sessions. The therapist must be non-judgmental or critical. The authors recommend that the therapist have professional experience, with a graduate degree related to mental health. For certification, the therapist must (a) have a daily practice of meditation, (b) have a mentor and attend meditation retreats for 5 to 10 days, (c) be experienced with mindful approaches in following a discipline as in a form of yoga, (d) and attend training with Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) and be trained to teach classes. It is strongly recommended (but not required) that the therapist have training in mindfulness-based practice. In addition, this chapter defines the roles regarding the client and the therapist as well as issues of culture, style, and past experiences in therapy and how they play an important role.

Chapter five explains the offerings of acceptance and mindfulness in behavioral functioning. Subsequent chapters up to and including chapter nine discuss finding a plan in monitoring and avoiding relapse with the client as well as how to terminate therapy. Chapter 10 discusses integration of other methods in ABBT therapy. Chapter 11 focuses on applicable cultural issues and provides resources to help treat those from different cultures.

The authors also provide suggestions for additional reading to help the therapist in the therapeutic process. The authors give their clinical convictions of the success of mindfulness-based practice. The book is a helpful guide for therapists who seek to use mindfulness-based practice.

Drs. Roemer and Orsillo have written a book that is an excellent resource for therapists who are new to acceptance and mindfulness approaches and those who have been using these approaches longer. They offer a comprehensive integration of ACT, DBT, and several mindfulness-approaches. I especially like that they include an emphasis on emotions and emotion regulation drawing from the work of Leslie Greenberg and others. There are several chapters that offer new insights for therapists at all levels of experience. The chapters on assessment and individualized case formulation offer several ways to look at client functioning and make a case presentation that connects to theory, but is specific to that person. The chapters on setting the stage for therapy and presenting the model focus on the therapeutic relationship and how the therapist and client both struggle with the same complexities of being human. There are numerous exercises and handouts that may be copied for use with clients and the clinical vignettes are helpful. The final chapter on cultural considerations (written with Jonathan Lee and Cara Fuchs) covers adapting therapy for clients from different backgrounds. I will use this book for training psychology interns in our internship program. Overall, I highly recommend this book for both therapists and graduate students.

Includes some practical exercises, and is an interesting read. The work is particularly strong in the early 2/3 of the book, while the latter portion gets too much into A.C.T. whereas I was interested in the mindfulness aspects (which is the sole reason for my view that it is a 4.8 instead of 5 stars). I highly recommend the book and applaud the authors for their thoroughness.

I found this book to be incredibly informative and useful. It makes what can be a confusing therapeutic approach very accessible. I think this book could be especially useful for the beginning clinician as it is very clear in laying out a guideline for treatment in general and a basic session outline. The handouts the authors provide are clear and easy to read. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone seeking to add a mindfulness/acceptance component to their practice.